Sun, Moon, Weather Combine for Brimming Tides on Kitsap Shores

High tide at the mouth of Gorst Creek comes close to reaching the side of Toys Topless in Gorst on Friday. (MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN)

Higher and higher the tides rose this week, from Southworth where lawns were underwater to Bainbridge Island, where a spit seemingly almost got swallowed.

But the worst could be over, at least for now.

The highest tide in recent days for this area was 13.8 feet, which occurred at 8:24 a.m. Thursday, according to meteorologist Andy Haner of the National Weather Service in Seattle, who doubted it was a record.

The predicted high for that instant was only 12 feet.

Three forces — the sun, moon and low air pressure — combined to beckon the tides farther out of their basins.

Haner explained that right now, the Earth is at its closest point to the sun in its annual orbit, causing tides to push farther up the beach.

“We normally get our highest astronomical tides on the year in January,” Haner said.

Adding to that is the moon. When it’s full or new, the differences between high tides and low tides are the greatest. This past week, it’s been a new moon.

Helping the sun and moon pull the tides up even more has been an enormous swath of low air pressure over the entire West Coast. Picture sucking on a straw and having the water rise.

“And that’s why we’ve had some unusually high tides this week,” Haner said.

How long, these brimming waters?

Haner said the low air pressure — which also has been causing the floods in California — is slowly moving back to normal, and Puget Sound may have already experienced the highest of the tides, for now. Low pressure was expected to be close to normal by Saturday afternoon.

The moon is waxing into its quarter-moon stage, where differences between tidal highs and lows are least, which should further calm things down.

Haner said the models to predict tides today don’t take air pressure into account very well. The National Weather Service is working on models that will.

In two years, super-high tides like the ones felt by waterfront homeowners, ferry commuters and boaters may actually be able to be accurately predicted.